1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrical connectors and, more particularly, to memory card connectors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Memory cards have recently been developed to improve memory capabilities in computer systems. Their modularity, increased memory capacity and smaller physical dimensions make them particularly desirable, especially in small-sized laptop computers.
A memory card connector used to interconnect these cards to a computer system should be compact in order to save space. At times, multiple memory cards may be interconnected to a computer system. In those cases, a memory card connector is required for each such card. One approach, to providing a compact arrangement of multiple memory card connectors, is to stack the connectors, one atop another, in an aligned, parallel manner as viewed in FIG. 1. One problem with this approach, however, is that space and material are often wasted when the connectors stacked. FIG. 1 illustrates a typical stacked memory card connector assembly having top connector 12' stacked atop bottom connector 12. Each memory card connector 12 and 12' includes an insulative upper guiding surface 13 and 13', respectively, and an insulative lower guiding surface 14 and 14', respectively. These two coplanar surfaces define a receiving slot 17 and 17' therebetween which receives a memory cards (only one shown). When these connectors are stacked, as may be viewed in FIG. 1, the respective upper guiding surface 13 of the lower memory card connector 12 abuts against the lower guiding surface 14' of the upper memory card connector 12'. The roles of lower surface 14' and upper surface 13, however, could be performed by one surface alone. Furthermore, the use of two surfaces instead of one increases the vertical height of the stacked connectors, which means that the stacked connectors occupy additional space.
Accordingly, there has been a need for a stackable memory card connector assembly which is more space efficient. The present invention meets this need.